SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan — Armenia’s national teams, both Open (men) and Women’s, won bronze medals at the Chess Olympiad held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. However, these were not the tournament’s overall bronze medals. In the Open competition, Germany won the overall bronze, India took silver, and Uzbekistan, the host nation, claimed gold winning the Olympiad. Among the Women’s teams China claimed the gold, Kazakhstan won silver and India took bronze.
However, the International Chess Federation (FIDE), has introduced a system that allows more teams to earn medals. In addition to the overall tournament winners, FIDE created five rating categories, or subgroups, labeled Groups A, B, C, D, and E.
These subgroups are established before Round 3 in both the Open and Women’s sections. Teams are divided as evenly as possible based on their initial average rating rankings. Armenia was placed in Group A, the most competitive subgroup, and won bronze in that category. The United States claimed gold in Group A in both the Open and Women’s competitions, followed by Azerbaijan in the Open section and Poland in the Women’s section. This innovation introduced by FIDE allowed the Armenian grandmasters to return home with medals despite finishing outside the overall top three.
During the Olympiad, which lasted about two weeks, the teams played 11 matches in total. Armenia’s Open squad won seven games against Barbados, Scotland, Sweden, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Iran and Croatia and drew three, against the United States, China and the Netherlands, and suffered only one defeat, against host Uzbekistan.
The Armenian Women’s team won eight matches, against Hong Kong, Singapore, Croatia, Peru, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and the United States, and drew one against Greece, and suffered two defeats, against Kazakhstan and China.
In the individual standings, Shant Sargsyan won bronze for his performance on the third board, earning eight points in 11 games. Mariam Mkrtchian earned silver for her individual performance on the third board of the Women’s games, scoring nine points in eleven games. Armenian-American Grandmaster Levon Aronian won an individual bronze medal on Board 4 playing for Team USA. Another Armenian-American Tatev Abrahamian played for the Women’s Team USA coached by GM Melik Khachian.
